Mated & Blooded, A Blood Ties Novel, Book 1 (26 page)

“For gods sakes kids, quit being so dramatic.
We are going on the trip of a lifetime not our graves. We are all
going to be just fine. Now, let us get out of here and get some
sleep. I’ve never been on a plane before and I want to be well
rested so that I can take in the entire experience”

I have had an amazingly wonderful life. It
has been more than any women could wish for. I am the mother of
seven fantastic children and the true wolf mate to a fantastic and
wonderful Alpha and I am also the beloved of the most
understanding, gentle vampire to ever walk the earth.

I couldn’t and shouldn’t ask for more, but
then I will and always did. I am two hundred and thirty three years
old today. My husband and mate Lucas looks every bit his age, I
don’t look a day over eighteen. Nikoli and I have been in this
bedroom sitting next to Lucas for the past three days. We could
here his heart slowing down bit by bit.

We knew it was only a matter of time before
he moved from this plain into the next. Fresh tears fell from my
eyes as I thought of him dying. Chances are, since we are a mated
wolf pair that I too will die shortly after he does.

Part of me is okay with that. I have lived a
life well beyond my expectations. I have even outlived three of my
own children. It is time that I too moved on, but I didn’t want to
and I wasn’t ready. I heard Lucas take in a deep shaky breath and
Nikoli and I both moved closer to him.

I watched as Nikoli reached out and took
Lucas’s hand into his. It was strange but they had become very
close friends over the years. In fact, Nikoli was the reason Lucas
had lived as long as he did. Nikoli has been secretly feeding Lucas
his blood for years in an attempt to keep him alive longer.

Initially, I had been angry and thought he’d
done it for selfish reasons. Specifically to keep me alive, when I
had confronted Nikoli I felt the truth in soul. Nikoli had come to
love Lucas as a friend and brother. He feared losing him as much as
I did.

So here we sat, side by side holding hands
and crying waiting for Lucas to leave us behind. I watched as his
chest rose one last time and he silently slipped away. I felt my
heart constrict and my wolf wailed within me for her lost mate.

I was distraught and was unable to tear
myself away from his side. My daughter Laura came into the bedroom
and knew her father had moved on. She too started to cry
hysterically.

“No mom! No! I can’t stand by and watch you
and dad die too. I barely made it though losing Nathan, Natalie and
Noah. How are we supposed to keep living without you and dad?”

She must have mind linked with her other
sisters and brother because Liam, Leona and Linda suddenly appeared
in the room. Liam decided he would take command he looked over at
Nikoli and said

“She’s your beloved too, isn’t there
something you can do to make sure she doesn’t die with dad? I know
she loved him but we all need her. Admit it, you have waited a
lifetime to have her to yourself”

I know that Nikoli wanted to say something
and I could feel the hurt and sadness pour off of him in waves. I
reached over and put my hands across his lips, then turned toward
my children

“Kids, I know this is hard on all of you, but
this is what is natural and normal. I am a wolf of sorts and I
mated and bonded with you father. I am meant to die with him. Now
stop pushing Nikoli there is nothing he can do and believe me this
is hurting him far more than this is hurting any of you”

Now give Nikoli and me some time alone I can
feel my wolf slipping away and I don’t think I have much time
left.

I wished that my heart would stop the same
way Kalli and Lucas’s did. I didn’t want to walk the earth without
my beloved and my best friend. I knew that the kids would need me
and in some way I still had a purpose but I just didn’t care.

I sat holding onto my beloveds hand and
allowed myself to grieve. I loved her and Lucas more than humanly
possible. My soul had danced not only with hers but also with his
at times during our youth. The more my blood had mixed with him the
deeper my love for him grew. We were true brothers and it had been
hard to say goodbye to him

Saying goodbye to Kalli however was
impossible. She was my beloved I wanted to have an eternity not a
couple hundred years. It didn’t matter that we’d never been sexual,
we been intimate in all ways that counted. I knew her soul and she
knew mine.

I looked down again at her and scrunched my
face up in emotional pain. She still looked so young it was hard
for me to accept that she was going to die simply because Lucas
did. If not for her bond with him, she would have lived
forever.

We learned that all the hybrid children of
Kalli and Lucas were immortal from an incident years ago when Linda
had been attacked at college. The humans had attempted to drug and
rape her. Thank god she managed to call out to Laura before she
overdosed her on the date rape drug. Laura had attacked the boys
when she realized what they were doing to her sister and one of the
guys managed to blast her in the chest with a sawed off
shotgun.

To our amazement Laura still managed to snap
the boys neck, pick up her sister in her arms and run her back to
BlueRidge before passing out. Then, just like a normal vampire she
drank and healed. After that day Liam couldn’t help but test the
boundaries of his healing abilities. He pushed at every edge and
managed to pull through. The only thing he hasn’t tried is removing
his own heart and cutting off his own head. I felt Kalli take a
deep rattling breath and her eyes briefly opened

“Nikoli, its time. I just felt my wolf leave
me. I am so sorry. I love you.”

I was quick to tell her

“I love you too Kalli, you are my beloved and
I will always love you”

I watched her eyes close again and her chest
stopped moving. I screamed out my pain as Liam, Laura, Leona and
Linda barged into the room.

I watched my mom and Uncle Nik dive into the
pool again. It was so strange seeing them romantic but somehow it
also felt so right. It didn’t happen right away; in fact I think
dad was gone for almost fifty years before they even kissed.

I can remember that day like it was
yesterday. Dad passed and within a few hours mom too died. She’d
been dead for almost an hour before she suddenly started to breathe
again. Best we can figure is her wolf died, but her soul held on
because she was Nikoli’s blooded beloved.

Whatever the reason my sisters and I couldn’t
have been happier. We were tired of burying our family. We buried
three of our siblings and our father. The relief at knowing that
mom and Nikoli would be with us for the rest of eternity was a
heady feeling. I looked over at Kenyan again before I called for
them

“Mom, Uncle.”

They stopped splashing each other long enough
to look over at me. That’s when they spotted Uncle Kenyan. Uncle
Nik hopped out of the pool first followed quickly by mom.

“Good lord Kenyan, it’s been a dogs age. What
the heck brings you way out here? I thought you were in Europe with
a British wolf pack?”

Mom moved towards him and wrapped his arms
tightly around his middle and squeezed with all she had. Uncle
Kenyon grunted but continued to smile.

“I need you" He coughed then continued

"I need you and Kalli to take a trip upstate
with me. I spoke to my daughter Ena and my grandson’s beloved is a
wolf.”

I decided to leave
them to discuss the details. Hearing about beloveds was hard for
me. I had always thought I could have had a wolf mate or a beloved
just like my mom. What I never thought was that I might not have
either.

THE END

Did you enjoy this book? If so try one of my
others.

Blood Ties
Series in Chronological order

Mated & Blooded

Beyond Bonded

Forever Mine

Shredded Bonds

Mine Eternally

Beloved Mine

Preview
from Beyond Bonded

Rena and Jeremy are not true mates, but for
some reason they were both fertile. As the only male and female
Bastet Cat People that have been born fertile in the last century
their elders have forced them to blood bond in the hopes of
producing more viable offspring.

So what happens when a powerful and demanding
vampire invades their camp and claims Rena as his beloved? Can Rena
break the blood bond or will she have to reject her beloved Micah
for the sake of our race

They drug her in kicking and screaming and
threw her into the center of the camp. Her heady smell wafted up to
me. It was clear she was in heat and that made every male in the
pride tremble in response. Most males in the pride hadn’t ever
smelled a Bastet female in heat.

The elders of the pride knew what it smelled
like, but had long since thought they would never smell it again.
Bastet were a dying breed. Their females no longer went into heat
and their males no longer carried viable sperm.

Finding a female Bastet in heat was like
finding the fountain of youth. She could be the savior of our race,
yet she fought like a heathen to keep the Bastet people away from
her. In fact, if not for her crystal blue eyes one might have
mistaken her for a true leopard.

An elder had stumbled upon her a few weeks
ago and knew the moment he laid eyes on her that she wasn’t a
leopard she was a Bastet in leopard form. He watched her for days
and waited for her to return to her human shape but she never
did.

When he finally approached her and forced the
change on her he realized that she was no longer in touch with her
human side. She was barbaric and driven by her animalistic nature.
They Bastet members that found her were working under the
assumption that she was a member of a pride that had lived in that
area fifteen years ago but had since moved out of the area. A mated
Bastet couple had stepped up and claimed her as their missing
child.

They claim she’d been lost in the forest
during an attack against her pride. She was only a baby at the time
and they assume that a female leopard had come upon her and taken
her in as her own pup and raised her in the wild.

Aside from her smell, nothing about the
animal in the center of the square was appealing to me. I am the
dominant male in this Bastet pride. I felt as though I could have
the pick of the litter and yet the elders wanted me to blood bond
with her.

I am the only known male Bastet to have
viable sperm. Until today it was thought there were no females that
were still capable of producing offspring. However, the female
rolling in the dirt in the center of camp was in heat, her being in
heat is a good indication she is capable of becoming pregnant.

If a blood bond is established between the
two of us, then technically we should be able to produce viable
offspring together. If we had been true mates, no blood bond would
have been required however like our ability to breed, Bastet had
also lost the ability to find their true mate.

Truth be told I wouldn’t have minded having
sex with her in an attempt to make offspring, but the elders were
insistent on a blood bond. Once I blood bonded with I would be
unable to bed other Bastet. I would no longer be able to choose
when and with whom I had sex instead I would be driven by the
mating ceremony and her heat. I clicked my tongue in agitation and
prepared to walk back to my cave when I was stopped by an
elder.

“Jeremy, I know that you don’t want to do
this but you will blood bond her tonight in an official ceremony.
If you can produce at least a dozen viable offspring, we promise to
release you from that bond. I personally give you my word that we
won’t force you to stay with her longer than necessary. You of all
people, the Leo of your pride must understand the importance of new
viable children to the Bastet race.” He paused for a moment and
beseeched me with his eyes before continuing

“We can force you if we need to, just as we
are forcing her but” he paused for a moment took a loud swallow and
a deep breath before continuing

“but if we need to force you, we will never
release you from the blood bond. You will be forced to mate with
her for the rest of your life”

I looked deeply into the elders eyes and
could read the truth in them. He meant it! They would strip me of
my title and turn me into nothing more than a breeder. I searched
my mind for a way out and came up with a blank. I knew he had no
alternative but to agree to blood bond with her. However, perhaps I
could set some of the terms and conditions.

“Fine” I said

“You want viable offspring, I want to remain
Leo while I breed on her. I will willingly go through the ceremony
tonight and blood bond with her.” I watched as the elders face
softened and his eyes crinkled slightly in delight before he
said

“I will have sex with her by force if
necessary every time she goes into heat”

The elder cringed slightly but nodded his
head in approval before I continued

“but you and three other elders must take an
oath that you will release me if I produce six not twelve viable
offspring. Do we have a deal?”

The elder nodded his head to indicate his
agreement with me then quickly went in search of two additional
elders that would take the oath with him. I turned towards the
center of the camp and realized they were going to force the change
on the female Bastet. I watched intently as she started to sparkle
briefly before she rematerialized as a human woman.

I had expected to see a homely dirty
undesirable woman. I was not prepared for the exquisite
characteristics in front of me. She was tall for a woman of the
Bastet species with a slender waist, long neck and raven black
hair. I found myself almost mesmerized by her soft gentle face that
had firm supple lips and the larges doe shaped bright blue
eyes.